Fall Seven Times, Stand Up Eight

I've always been intrigued by this saying. I wanted to use it for this blog post because it applies to how I'm feeling these days, so I went to google it. I wanted to make sure I was remembering it correctly and I wanted to know where it came from. The first hit was someone asking what it meant. I found the reply thread to be rather disheartening, but that is for another blog post on another day.

I've started too many blog posts with complaints about not blogging, and I didn't want to do that again. Consistent blogging is just one of the many things that I feel I am failing at these days. But I'm not going to give up. Most of the time these days I feel like a fish trying to swim upstream and I'm pretty weary. But I'm not giving up.

I'm continuing to learn about #flipclass and just spent a rather encouraging hour participating in tonight's Twitter chat. I found some new people to follow, and I got a few ideas for things to try. I also have been thinking about the sheer volume of what I've been trying to do. I rather feel like I've been trying to get a drink from a fire hose. A conclusion that I came to this evening is that I need to focus on flipping just one of my classes, rather than trying to flip them all. Now keep in mind, I'm not talking about 100% flipping. I'm talking about taking baby steps.

Now the questions is, which class do I focus on, and how do I balance all the work I still have to do to be prepared for all my other classes? Someone on #flipclass suggested that I start in the one that I feel most comfortable with content and has the highest achieving students. That is going to take some thinking. I have high achieving students in all my classes, but I don't have the comfort level with the content that I would like.

This is going to take some thinking. The hard part is trying to improve and move forward, not just operate in survival mode all the time. The hard part is to find the time to do the work and learning that I need to do without neglecting my husband or killing my personal life.